The processing of petroleum oils in refineries is one or the major sources of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. One of the main industrial greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide. Under the Kyoto protocol, the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) has been capped for developed countries. As a consequence many of these developed countries have in turn capped, or have made plans to cap in the future, the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide by industry in their country. This has created a lively discussion how to reduce fossil CO2 emission.
It is known that carbon is present in the atmosphere as CO2 and that photoautotrophs like plants, algae and some bacteria fix this inorganic carbon to organic carbon (carbohydrates) using sunlight for energy. Over geological time frames (>106 years) organic matter (plant materials) is fossilized to provide petroleum, natural gas and coal.
When consuming these fossil resources to make polymers, chemicals & fuel the carbon is released back into the atmosphere as CO2 in a short time frame of 1-10 years. The rate at which biomass is converted to fossil resources is in total imbalance with the rate at which fossil resources are consumed and liberated. However, when using annually renewable crops or biomass as the feedstocks for manufacturing our carbon based polymers, chemicals and fuels, the rate at which CO2 is fixed equals the rate at which it is consumed and liberated. Using annually renewable carbon feedstocks allows for sustainable development of carbon based polymer materials and control and even reduction of CO2 emissions to help meet global CO2 emissions standards under the Kyoto protocol.
It would be an advancement in the art to provide processes that may help to create sustainable CO2 emissions or even reduce CO2 emissions from a refinery and/or to provide processes that can be beneficial in a CO2 capture and trade scheme.
WO2010/135734 describes a method for catalytically cracking a biomass feedstock and a refinery feedstock in a refinery unit having a fluidized reactor. The refinery unit may include a fluidized reactor; a first system providing a biomass feedstock and a refinery feedstock to the fluidized reactor and a second system for at least one of refreshing and regenerating a catalyst for the fluidized reactor. In one of the embodiments of WO2010/135734 the biomass feedstock comprises a plurality of solid biomass particles having an average size between 50 and 1000 microns. WO2010/135734 does not provide any details on the catalyst to be regenerated and the regeneration process. In addition WO2010/135734 does not describe how to improve sustainable CO2 emissions or reduce fossil CO2 emissions from the regenerator.